State categorised into three parts for investors

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, August 13

With a view to  attracting investment to interior areas, the government has categorised the state into A, B and C grade with thrust on granting more incentives to industrially developing and  backward areas.

As per new industrial policy, the categorisation has been undertaken on the basis of location, distance from the inter-state border, extent of industrial development and overall backwardness.  The industrially developed areas have been categorised as A while the industrially developing areas have been placed under the B category and the tribal areas comprising the industrially backward development blocks and backward panchayats as C. 

 A  slew of incentives related to the allotment of land and industrial sheds, concessional rate of stamp duty and registration fee,  exemption from payment of change of land use charges, interest subvention, assistance for transportation of plant and machinery  as well as transport subsidy for the investors in the categories B and C are more than the category A areas. The step has been taken to facilitate the investor to go to the interior areas where the youth are unemployed. 

Apart from this, the concessional rate of land is available to the tune of 45 per cent and 65 per cent of the rate or premium fixed for land in the B and C categories as against merely 25 per cent for the category A areas. Terming it a positive step which will allure an investor in the interior areas, Arun Rawat, former chairman, CII, Himachal, said the step would promote  rural entrepreneurship  and help the rural youth in getting employment. But more should be done to  reduce  the cost of doing business as it would help micro, small and medium enterprises to flourish. 

“The government is emphasising the ease of doing business by removing various procedural bottlenecks and clearances are being made time-bound.  A common application form, which was introduced in 2015, has been further simplified by doing away with the undue procedures,” said a senior official of the Industries Department. 

Sops more in B, C areas

• The categorisation has been undertaken on the basis of location, distance from the inter-state border, extent of industrial development and overall backwardness
• The industrially developed areas have been categorised as A while the industrially developing areas have been placed under the B category
• Tribal areas comprising the industrially backward development blocks and backward panchayats are under  C grade
• Sops for investors in the B and C categories are more than the category A areas